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Posted By: MG2009 Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 04:51 PM
Just transferred files, folders, and some 3rd-party apps from backup to new iMac. Woo-Hoo.

I opened and setup the Apple MAIL app. All is fine, except there are no addresses stored in CONTACTS for MAIL to use.

I went back to the backup and dragged the contacts from Library/Application Support/Address Book. The files transferred to the new Mac folder in Application Support, but these are not recognized (?) when I look into CONTACTS. (Just find my own email address and Apple's address - which, I assume, happened when I first fired up the new iMac.)

So . . . I then opened CONTACTS and went to Preferences/Accounts/ + to import from HOTMAIL. I get a message "unable to verify account name or password." Yet, if I go to a Safari webpage and login in Outlook/Hotmail there, no problem. So . . . my password IS recognized by Outlook there.

Clearly I am missing something about the process. Any one have any other ideas how to add HOTMAIL/OUTLOOK recipient addresses for use with Apple MAIL?
Posted By: jchuzi Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 08:03 PM
The following should work if you have Outlook 2016 or 365:

1. In Outlook, select People.
2. Drag an address from that window to the desktop. It becomes a .vcf file.
3. Drag that vcf. file into the Contacts window.

You can probably create a desktop folder first and then drag all the addresses from Outlook into it. Then, open that folder, select all of the addresses, and drag them into the Contacts window.

I know nothing about Hotmail, so I can't help you there.
Posted By: MG2009 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 09:38 PM
Wow! I have a brand-spanking new iMac . . . and APPLE MAIL cannot do something as simple, I would think, as importing/exporting addresses in its own CONTACTS application?

Is the only alternative: ADD (sender's) CONTACT from emails I have received?



UPDATE: That's what I did. Fortunately, I only have a few dozen folks I regularly contact.
Posted By: artie505 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 10:54 PM
Mail doesn't import contacts. It searches for them in Contacts as you type.

The only contacts archive Mail maintains is Previous Recipients.

You can export an address to Contacts with Message > Add Sender to Contacts.

You should have been able to import the contents of your original Contacts app when you drug & dropped.
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 11:00 PM
I know this falls into the category of, "Now he tells me 🤬", but for the benefit of subsequent readers of this thread...

Your Contacts should be transferred automatically…
  • as long as both the old and new Machines are logged onto the same Apple ID and in System Preferences > Apple ID, Contacts is checked.
  • ...or you use Migration Assistant to migrate the network and user data
  • …or you restore /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook from a Time Machine backup
The entire Contacts list can be manually transferred by...
  1. Opening Contacts on your old Mac
  2. Select any entry
  3. Press ⌘A to select all the entries
  4. Click and drag to the desktop to create a .vcf file
  5. Open that vcf on the new machine which will launch Contacts and import all of the contacts from the old machine in a single operation.
Posted By: artie505 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/13/20 11:10 PM
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
…or you restore /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook from a Time Machine backup

Couldn't that file be drug & dropped from MG2009's external?
Posted By: MG2009 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/14/20 04:09 AM
Re: " . . . Couldn't that file be drug & dropped from MG2009's external?"

That's what I tried. The individual contacts would appear in the ADDRESS BOOK folder on the new iMac . . . However, when I opened CONTACTS, these would not appear in the list (i.e just mine and Apple's).
Posted By: artie505 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/14/20 06:05 AM
In your initial post you said
Quote:
I went back to the backup and dragged the contacts from Library/Application Support/Address Book. (Emphasis added)
but that's NOT the file joemike referenced, i.e. ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook.

(Looking at that folder suggests to me that you may have needed to drag both it AND the one you drug.)
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/14/20 04:08 PM
After some experimentation during which My Contacts list was reduced from few hundred entries to Apple and myself I was able to verify ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder is where all of the address book entries are located in Catalina. I have also verified the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook folder is also involved as it gets updated when a change is mode to the Contacts List.

I also ran into a reason why replacing the ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder replacement may have failed in MG2009's case. When Contacts launches, if ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder is not present Contacts immediately creates the folder and structure with two entries Apple and the User. (Sound familiar?) When I restored the ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder I received no warning the folder was being overwritten and instead the restored folder ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book 2 was created. (I haven't figured out why I wasn't offered the overwrite option?) After a moment of panic when my Contacts list was not restored 😱 After discovering the renaming instead of overwriting, I corrected the folder names and violà the contacts list was restored. 😁
Posted By: artie505 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/14/20 04:40 PM
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I have also verified the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook folder is also involved as it gets updated when a change is mode to the Contacts List.

That folder includes a link to ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I also ran into a reason why replacing the ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder replacement may have failed in MG2009's case. When Contacts launches, if ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder is not present Contacts immediately creates the folder and structure with two entries Apple and the User. (Sound familiar?) When I restored the ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder I received no warning the folder was being overwritten and instead the restored folder ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book 2 was created. (I haven't figured out why I wasn't offered the overwrite option?) After a moment of panic when my Contacts list was not restored 😱 After discovering the renaming instead of overwriting, I corrected the folder names and violà the contacts list was restored. 😁

If I followed that, you're postulating that MG2009's drag & drop may have actually worked but he was launching the wrong Address Book?

Hah! Sounds all too plausible. frown

Since this hasn't come up, it's worth mentioning that every time I update Contacts I hit File > Export > Contacts Archive, and a backup appears in ~/Documents. Having followed the same practice would have saved MG2009 a heck of a lot of trouble.
Posted By: MG2009 Re: Adding Emails Address to CONTACTS - 03/14/20 05:20 PM
Yep. I missed the "containers" distinction in (your) original remarks. blush

If . ..

1. I go to ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book folder, I find in the METADATA folder all the addresses which I added manually .

However . . .

2. When I go to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AddressBook folder, the DATA folder only contains aliases, a Documents folder, and a Library folder. In that Library folder there is an Application Support folder which has an alias to ADDRESSBOOK buried within . . . which links me back to ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book. I would never have found that on my own in a million years.

Any-hoo . . . the METADATA folder I mentioned above has 71 addresses with the ROLODEX-type icon. (I didn't realize I had done so many manual entries! Guess I went into a trance mode during the process.) crazy

Thanks, Guys, for all the help. I will do that ARCHIVE thing that Artie mentioned.
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